Weekly "Table Talk" story and questions by the author of the Art of Amazement. To subscribe to this blog via email, visit http://jsli.org .

Friday, June 24, 2016

It's So Tempting . . .

The goal of this blog is to bring some leadership training to the Shabbat table....

With news so dramatic, the temptation to comment is hard to resist.

But I know that you expect more of this email. You enter this
intellectual space every week for a break from the 24-hour news feed,
for a little bit of soul food.

May I just point out that the Brexit was no landslide.

If the British People had decided to require a sensible supermajority, it would have failed.

If yesterday's vote were an opinion poll, it would be a statistical tie. (Not unlike the last four POTUS elections.)

Making such a radical national policy based on a simple majority reminds one of the people of Athens voting to go to war with Syracuse, and some of Pericles's best quotes:

""Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pericles.html

Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pericles.html

"Wait for that wisest of all counselors, Time.”
"Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”
“The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.”

All of this leads to an interesting question for your table, which is ultimately a spiritual question, and a very Jewish one:

For profound progress to occur, which is more important — grass-roots change or great leadership?

Shabbat Shalom

PS - Which is your favorite Pericles quote?
PPS - There are two hidden links in this post. Can you find them?

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